Work, Not Play
by SilverEyeShinobi
Summary: When Tooth is stressed out from work, she receives a visit from Jack Frost. Normally she wouldn't have time for the white haired hellion, but today he seemed hell bent on making Tooth have fun for once in her life. Oneshot


Work, Not Play

The Tooth Palace was abuzz with activity. Mini fairies flew in every direction, carrying little coins and teeth. Wave after wave of Mini fairies rushed in and out, in and out, chattering like a group of budgies as they worked.

"Come on, come on..." Tooth said nervously, checking the number of teeth on her clipboard. "Has anyone gotten Trevor's tooth?" She called out.

A chattering mini fairy held up her hand.

"And Lyla's? She always wakes up early!"

There was a startled chirp and a mini fairy rushed from the room. Tooth groaned and ran a hand across the feathers on her head.

"Hard day, Tooth?"

"No, not you..." Tooth sighed, recognizing the voice instantly. The mini fairies chattered in excitement, some of them immediately getting distracted and rushing over to a boy with white hair. He laughed, letting them poke around his hair and tug at his clothes for a moment.

"Fairies! Deadlines!" Tooth called.

The fairies stopped squeaking abruptly, looking at Tooth in surprise as if they'd forgotten she was there. They rushed back into action, squeaking back at the boy who waved them off.

"Jack Frost, this is a terrible time!" Tooth cried, waving her arms around. "We still have well over five thousand teeth to collect! And you _know _that as soon as the sun rises in one place, it sets in another, leaving a new area to collect teeth in!"

"I'm guessing it's now night time straight through North America?" Jack asked, casually leaning on his staff.

"It's night for half of North America and a good part of Europe!" Tooth cried. "I don't have time to deal with any of your antics, so please leave!" She returned to her clipboard and began muttering to herself, checking off names as her mini fairies came back.

Jack Frost stood, still leaning on his staff, his brilliant blue eyes watching Tooth flit back and forth from tooth case to tooth case, checking and double checking that the teeth had been collected.

A faint chittering met his ears, making Jack turn. He smiled at the sight of the little fairy that was instantly recognizable to him.

"Hey, Baby Tooth! How are you doing today?"

Baby Tooth chattered her reply, one Jack couldn't understand, but got the meaning of it. She just wanted to say hello, as usual.

"Tooth's pretty stressed out again, huh?" Jack said, looking back up at the multicoloured fairy who was still checking things off on her clipboard.

Baby Tooth squeaked slightly, nodding her tiny head.

"What do you think?" Jack said, grinning. "Should we let her have a little fun for once?"

Baby Tooth chattered in a way that could've passed for laughter, but Jack considered it joyful agreement.

Jack's grin widened. "Why don't you gather up some friends and take that clipboard from her? I'm sure you guys could fill it out just fine."

Baby Tooth squeaked and did a flip in the air before racing off to find some friends. Jack chuckled to himself, twirling his staff and kicking the little bit of frost that appeared.

Tooth continued to work, groaning when she realized she'd forgotten where she was and which teeth had come back. She'd have to do much more cataloguing...

A mini fairy flew in front of her, smiling brightly. Then more looped around her, all of them smiling that same mischievous smile. The expression was so familiar, so Jack Frost-like that Tooth wondered how much time her fairies had spent studying the white haired hellion.

"There's teeth to collect, my fairies!" Tooth called, tapping her pen on the clipboard. "We still need to get teeth from southern Europe, so- HEY!" Tooth grabbed for the clipboard that had been ripped from her hands. Five mini fairies flew off with it, two more of them taking her pen. Little voices of the fairies came back to her, telling her that they'd do the work now.

"No!" Tooth cried. "Give back my clipboard!" Her feathers ruffled and she whipped after the mini fairies, or at the very least tried to. An icy hand had wrapped around her ankle and pulled her back. Tooth didn't need to look down to know who it was.

"JACK FROST, LET ME GO!"

"Sorry, Tooth." Jack said, white teeth gleaming from behind a mischievous grin. "But I don't think I will." He was very close to being yanked across the floor by the sheer force of Tooth's wing beats. He tapped his staff on the ground against his feet, freezing himself to the floor so Tooth's struggling body couldn't drag him away.

Tooth suddenly whipped around and cuffed Jack across the face.

"OW!" Jack cried, the ice around his feet breaking as he fell to the ground.

"I don't know what you told my fairies to do, but I swear Jack, if any of these teeth get lost, it's on your head!" She cried.

"Tooth, come on..." Jack sighed, standing up. "Your fairies are a part of you, right? Obviously they'll be able to keep track of the teeth. Have a little faith."

"Jack-"

"Anyone with eyes can see that you're stressed out." Jack said. "You're all work and no play, Tooth."

"I'm not like you, Jack!" Tooth hissed, her feathers ruffling even more, making her look scary and more beautiful at the same time.

"That's obvious." Jack muttered. "Anyway, the mini fairies and I decided that you deserve a day off. You need to have fun, Tooth."

"No I do _not._ There's too much work that needs to be done-"

"See? There you go again." Jack said with a sigh. "To you, it's always work, work, work."

"And to you, it's always play, play, play! You can't take anything seriously!"

"Hey, I look after the kids too!" Jack protested. "I just like doing it."

"And don't you think I like collecting teeth?"

"You don't collect teeth anymore, Tooth." Jack pointed out. "You stay here and let your mini fairies do it."

Tooth opened her mouth to protest but stopped, her feathers sagging as she realized he was right.

"Let your mini fairies handle work for today, okay?" Jack said, smiling slightly. "Let's go have some fun."

"Did you come here just to tell me that?" Tooth asked, her voice dull and irritated.

"No." Jack said. "I came here to say hi." He smiled. "It's the middle of summer, remember? I'm quite bored."

Tooth nodded slowly. "What do you do during the summer anyway?"

Jack rolled his eyes, grinning brightly. "I'll tell you if you come with me."

Tooth sighed, realizing she didn't have much of a choice anymore. "Fine. I'll go."

If it was possible, Jack's grin widened. Tooth, once again, was fascinated by his sparkling white teeth. It took everything she had not to start sticking her fingers in his mouth again.

"Let's go then." Jack said, heading out of the palace.

Tooth's mini fairies chattered at her to have fun and waved happily. One of them randomly rushed Jack and kissed his cheek before flipping away, chittering in a way that sounded more like a giggle than a chirp. Jack couldn't help but wonder if it had been dared to do that.

Tooth flitted in the air just off the side of her palace by the front doors. Jack stepped out casually, his staff propped up on his shoulder. The wind ruffled his hair as he stepped up to the side.

"I've always wanted to do this..." Jack said, looking off the edge.

"Huh?" Tooth looked slightly confused.

Jack took a few steps back before running towards the edge. With a loud, ecstatic cry, he threw himself off the side and freefell straight towards the ground.

"JACK!" Tooth cried, diving towards him, gathering speed as she raced to catch him. But a moment later, Jack waved his staff and the wind caught him, launching him straight up into the air and taking Tooth with him. She screamed in horror as she tumbled through the air just behind him.

"JACK! I CAN'T FLY!" She cried.

"Well then don't!" Jack laughed, flipping over and flying on his back.

"That's like telling a fish not to swim!" Tooth yelled, crying out as the wind tossed her around violently.

"Well sometimes fish ride the currents to save energy!" Jack pointed out. "So just...don't fly!"

Tooth trembled slightly but forced herself to stop beating her wings. The wind grabbed her and twirled her through the air. She flew peacefully now that there was no resistance. A grin crossed her features as she flew up beside Jack

"This is...Wow!" Tooth cried. "Do you always fly like this?"

"Yep," Jack barrel rolled a few times, shooting forward and spreading his arms out like a sail and slowed down again. "No rules to follow, the wind just pushes you along. You're free."

Tooth smiled. "Yeah. This is...nice. A little cold, but nice."

Jack laughed. "Sorry about the cold."

"It's fine." Tooth said. "After all, that's what feathers are for."

Jack laughed again. Then his bright blue eyes glinted mischievously. Tooth had half a second to prepare for what was to come, and even then, it still surprised her.

The wind suddenly shoved the two of them into a steep nose dive. Tooth screamed, the sound coming out sounding both terrified and ecstatic at the same time.

"EEEAAHAAA!" Jack screeched, shooting straight towards the ground with a quick corkscrew. Tooth followed his example, the motion causing her to spin rapidly to the point where she got dizzy. The whirling disoriented her, but she couldn't stop laughing.

And then the wind shot them into the air once more, making Tooth cry out.

Jack was still laughing by the time Tooth had recovered from the spinning and the free falling.

"Fun?" Jack asked.

"Hee hee, yes." Tooth said with a grin.

"Want to go again?"

"Can we?"

"Yep."  
Tooth grinned. "Let's go."

Jack laughed and the two of them once again plunged towards the earth. This time, they flew faster than they did before, shooting over treetops. Jack spotted a lake in the distance. He grinned, getting a new idea.

"Want to go skating, Tooth?" He asked.

"Skating?" Tooth questioned.

"Yeah, come on." Jack flew towards the lake and skimmed the water top. Tooth followed and trailed her fingers across the surface. She smiled to herself as she watched Jack land at the center. The lake froze instantly, ice spreading out from the spot where his feet touched the water. Tooth had only seen him do this once, and that was back at her palace when they had gone there to stop Pitch from taking the teeth.

Jack tapped the ice with his staff a few times, freezing any thin patches.

"You'll have to land to do this." Jack said, grinning.

Tooth contemplated the ice for a moment before setting herself down on the ice. The material was strange beneath her feet as she'd never, ever touched any ground before. Not to mention it was freezing cold. And slippery.

"W-What do I do?" Tooth asked.

"You slide," Jack said, tapping the bottoms of his feet with his staff. Blades of ice formed, and he stood on them as if they weren't even there. "Like this." He began skating on his literal ice skates, moving so fluidly and so gracefully across the frozen water that for a moment, Tooth felt jealous.

Jack skidded to a stop right beside her. "Want to try?" He asked.

Tooth nodded. "Do I need to freeze my feet too?"

"Well technically I didn't freeze my feet." Jack said, holding up one of his feet. "I just made an ice skate."

"Will it hurt?"

"Probably not."

Tooth tentatively held up one of her feet, and Jack tapped her foot with his staff. She winced slightly at the feeling of the ice creeping across her foot, but strangely enough, it wasn't cold.

"Now the other one." Jack said.

Tooth held up her other foot and immediately lost her balance. Jack caught her feathery arm and pulled her back up.

"Here," he said, holding her up. "I'll help you balance."

Tooth nodded and held up her skate-less foot. She wobbled slightly, but Jack was steady and strong despite the thin blades on the bottoms of his feet. He tapped the bottom of her other foot and a second skate appeared.

"Okay, now I'll show you how to skate." Jack said. "At first, it might be easier if you thought of it as walking."

Tooth tried everything to learn how to skate. She kept slipping and falling, but every single time, Jack was there to catch her and pull her back onto her feet. She held onto Jack's staff as he coached her through skating. Eventually, she began to move very slowly across the ice, beginning to get the technique down.

"Push outwards. Make a sort of curve." Jack encouraged.

Tooth did her best, but she was always thrown off balance, and just as always, Jack caught her, either physically, or with a fluffy pile of snow.

Eventually, Jack made her skate alone and soon, Tooth began to figure out how to do it. She was nervous as she did so, not exactly having fun.

"Okay, let's try this." Jack said, grinning. "Hold on to my staff." He held the curved end out towards her.

Tooth grabbed the staff and looked up at Jack warily.

"I'm going to pull you along, okay? Remember what I told you about turning?"

Tooth nodded.

"That's all you need to worry about. Just keep your feet stable."

"Okay."

Jack grinned and began skating backwards, pulling Tooth across the ice. A few times, she stumbled, but Jack was always there to counter her stumble and keep the game going.

And then, Tooth began to laugh. The wind whipped through her feathers as they spun around a corner. She looked up at him, seeing his bright blue eyes sparkling just as much as his teeth which were showing behind a broad grin. His white hair whipped across his face, and his clothes rippled as they whirled around the ice.

And Tooth continued to laugh, eventually letting go of the staff so she could skate alone. When she wanted a speed boost, she'd grab Jack's arm and he'd tow her along, eventually launching her across the ice where sometimes she slipped and fell into Jack's spontaneously appearing piles of snow. He was always there to help her back up and clear the ice once again.

Eventually, exhaustion began to creep into Tooth's feathery frame. She sat down in a snowdrift to rest while Jack continued to whip across the ice, trailing his staff across the surface, laughing as the fern frost crept across the ice. Just seeing him have fun felt like a sort of treat for Tooth.

Jack rerouted himself and skidded to a stop in front of Tooth. "We done?" He asked.

Tooth didn't want to be finished with skating, but she nodded. "Yeah."

Jack stamped his feet and the skates shattered. He tapped Tooth's feet to break the skates on hers as well. He looked up at the sky, squinting against the suns light for a moment.

"Looks like there's enough time for one more thing..." He murmured.

"What?" Tooth asked eagerly. Would it be just as fun as riding the wind or skating?

"I say we get snow cones. Do you like snow cones?"

"What's a snow cone?"

Jack grinned. "You'll find out. Wait here."

Then he leapt into the air and flew into the sky. Tooth really had no other choice but to wait. She eyed the sky, kicking her feathered feet against the fluffy snow. She hummed to herself, something she hadn't done for a very, very long time. She wasn't sure how she even remembered the melodies she was humming, but they made her smile all the same.

She scanned the sky, waiting for Jack to return with the snow cones. She wasn't quite sure what those were, but if Jack liked them, then she figured they must be fun.

After a few more minutes, Jack shot down from the sky, holding two cone shaped paper cups with a ball of blue ice on the top of them.

"I wasn't sure what flavour you liked, so I found blue raspberry. That's my favourite." He stated, handing her one of the blue snow cones.

Tooth took it and wondered how she was going to eat it. She watched Jack take a small bite out of it and slurp up some of the melted ice as he did so. Tooth giggled and took a bite. It was cold and crunchy. The flavour was both sweet and tangy and it made her smile.

Jack sat down beside her, his lips tinged blue from the snow cone. "So?" He asked.

"It's good." Tooth said, taking another bite. A bit of blue liquid dribbled down her chin, making Jack laugh. Tooth blushed slightly and wiped it off, sticking her hand in the snow to wash it off.

"That's why you slurp it." Jack chuckled.

Tooth took another bite, this time slurping up some of the liquid. The sound she made was so inelegant and so un-Tooth-ish that Jack burst out laughing. He fell backwards into the snowdrift, kicking his legs and clutching his gut as he laughed so hard, his snow cone fell out of the paper cup.

"NO!" He cried in mock horror, picking it up and sticking it back in the cup. The only bad part of it was the fact that now his blue hoodie had a sticky patch of flavoured snow cone liquid on it.

It was Tooth's turn to laugh. She giggled as she watched Jack scrubbing the blue fluid out of his shirt. The only reason she could see it properly was because of the wet patch it had left. The colour blended perfectly with his hoodie. Seeing Tooth laughing, Jack smiled to himself, glad he at least managed to help her have fun.

As the sun began to set, the two of them flew to the top of a tree to watch it. They had finished their snow cones minutes before, and now they suffered in the aftermath of it. Tooth shivered from time to time, grinning at Jack with blue tinted teeth. Seeing this, Jack grinned back, unable to help it. Instantly, Tooth's smile faded away.

"Jack! You're teeth!" She cried, instantly fluttering over and sticking her fingers in his mouth. "They turned blue!"

"Eeah, ai no." Jack cringed away from her fingers, but she was persistent. "Toof, stahp."

"Oh! Sorry..." She retreated, embarrassed. "I just... they were so white, and now they're blue."

"Hey, yours are too." Jack said, grinning. "And that's not the best part." He stuck out his tongue which had turned a startling shade of dark blue. Tooth promptly screamed in horror, making Jack laugh.

"Mine is blue too?" She asked, sticking her tongue out in an attempt to see the colour. Jack laughed, nodding as she pulled her tongue back in, her cheeks flushing slightly.

"Don't worry." Jack said, still grinning. "It'll go away."

Tooth sighed in relief. "Good."

"We should get heading back now, huh?"

Tooth looked up, mildly surprised when she realized she'd forgotten all about the teeth collecting she was behind in. Yes, she had to go back to work. Yet, deep down, she felt very, very sad.

Jack created a burst of wind which launched the two of them into the air. Tooth immediately stopped beating her wings, trying to enjoy the last few moments of freedom she could. But with the knowledge that she was returning to the palace to go right back to work, she mourned the loss of the fun she'd had.

They arrived back far too soon for her liking.

"You look so sad, Tooth." Jack said, the normally cheerful smile gone from his face.

Tooth shrugged and looked up at the white haired boy. "I had fun today." She said.

"Yeah, I could tell." Jack grinned, the smile fading just as quickly upon seeing the mournful look on Tooth's face.

"Guess I have to get back to work now, huh?" She said.

"Yes." Jack stated. "But the thing about fun is that you have to know when to have it. Life isn't all about play, right?"

"You seem to make it that way."

"No, I help Bunnymund in his gardens over the summer. Except this year, I kind of froze his flowers by accident so he kicked me out." Jack shrugged. "North won't trust me with making toys, so my last option was you. To be honest, I was going to ask if I could help collect teeth."

Tooth's eyes widened slightly. "You'd... You'd really do that?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Of course." He twirled his staff. "Summer's pretty boring anyway. If I can't make snow, why not do something else?"

Tooth grinned. "Yeah, that's true."

"So for tonight, I'll get some rest." Jack said. "Tomorrow, I'll come back and I'll help collect teeth."

"I'd like that."

Jack grinned. "Okay, so I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Or you could spend the night here."

"Sure." Jack said with a shrug. "It would save me a trip to Antarctica."

Tooth's jaw dropped. "Is that where you're living?"

"Yeah." Jack scratched the back of his head. "I have a house there. It's nice and quiet. I don't usually stay there unless I have to."

"Well in that case, you're definitely staying the night!" Tooth grabbed him by the sleeve of his hoodie and dragged him into the palace. Jack didn't bother protesting, laughing as the mini fairies once again got distracted by the sight of him. Several of them formed a heart in the air. Jack waved up at them, seeing a few of them break formation as they fainted.

"Jack, stop teasing my fairies." Tooth half growled, half laughed.

"Sorry." Jack said, pulling his sleeve away. "I'll just head some other place. See you tomorrow, Tooth!" He ran back out the door, figuring sleeping outside would be his best bet. He picked a spot on the roof and flopped down, smiling up at the moon above his head. Meanwhile, Tooth got back to work, smiling as she took her clipboard and pen back from her mini fairies. She hoped that someday her and Jack could go on yet another adventure just as fun as the one they had today.

"Thanks Jack." She said with a smile. The mini fairies chattered their agreement and went back to work.


End file.
